CLIO Awards: Best of the 2012 Winners

Dogs bark the Imperial March. A virtual museum of yourself. An infuriating get-out-the-vote campaign. A quietly gorgeous environmental appeal. This year’s CLIO winners are a potent mix of poignant, comic, and just plain clever. Here are some highlights.

Grand CLIO, Film
Chipotle, "Back to the Start"
Agency: Creative Artists Agency and Chipotle, Los Angeles
A beautiful meditation on sustainable farming, this stop-motion spot told the story of a farmer who builds a giant industrial operation, then has a crisis of conscience and reverts to his old way of doing things. The music is transcendent—a lyrically perfect, emotionally rousing cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist" by Willie Nelson.

Grand CLIO, Interactive
Intel, The Museum of Me
Agency: Projector, Tokyo
Banking on humanity's endless proclivity for self-adoration, Intel's delightful site linked to your Facebook profile and created a virtual museum of your friends, your likes and your links—then took you on a little museum tour of yourself. Yes, your online life is so artfully lived, it belongs in a museum.

Hall of Fame
Honda Diesel, "Grrr"
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, London
Animals frolicking in a computer-generated Eden. Flying diesel engines. The gravel-on-velvet voice of Garrison Keillor. This 2005 Honda spot —chosen by Adweek at the end of 2009 as the best commercial of that decade—may be the finest love song ever written about hatred (of old, dirty auto motors).

After the jump: Agency of the Year, Network of the Year, Production Company of the Year, and Advertiser of the Year.

Dogs bark the Imperial March. A virtual museum of yourself. An infuriating get-out-the-vote campaign. A quietly gorgeous environmental appeal. This year’s CLIO winners are a potent mix of poignant, comic, and just plain clever. Here are some highlights.

Grand CLIO, Film
Chipotle, "Back to the Start"
Agency: Creative Artists Agency and Chipotle, Los Angeles
A beautiful meditation on sustainable farming, this stop-motion spot told the story of a farmer who builds a giant industrial operation, then has a crisis of conscience and reverts to his old way of doing things. The music is transcendent—a lyrically perfect, emotionally rousing cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist" by Willie Nelson.

Grand CLIO, Interactive
Intel, The Museum of Me
Agency: Projector, Tokyo
Banking on humanity's endless proclivity for self-adoration, Intel's delightful site linked to your Facebook profile and created a virtual museum of your friends, your likes and your links—then took you on a little museum tour of yourself. Yes, your online life is so artfully lived, it belongs in a museum.

Hall of Fame
Honda Diesel, "Grrr"
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, London
Animals frolicking in a computer-generated Eden. Flying diesel engines. The gravel-on-velvet voice of Garrison Keillor. This 2005 Honda spot —chosen by Adweek at the end of 2009 as the best commercial of that decade—may be the finest love song ever written about hatred (of old, dirty auto motors).

After the jump: Agency of the Year, Network of the Year, Production Company of the Year, and Advertiser of the Year.

Agency of the Year
BBDO New York
As usual, BBDO New York delivered stellar creative work this year. Highlights included the HBO Go ads poking fun at movies clichés, FedEx's gorgeously green "Enchanted Forest" spot, and inspired work across the board for Gillette and AT&T. Freeze frame on David Lubars punching the sky!

Network of the Year
Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy dominated in all corners of the globe, from South Africa's clownish Cadbury work to Argentina's TEDx taxi drivers to Malaysia's exquisite Pictionary ads. Almost a dozen other Ogilvy offices are in line for CLIOs, too—Brazil, Tunisia, Ireland, Chile, Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Dubai, England, Mexico and Vietnam.

Production Company of the Year
Smuggler
Great storytelling with visual panache—that's the indelible Smuggler style. The production company soared again this year, most notably with Guy Shelmerdine's "Big Day" for Weetabix, Brian Beletic's "History Made and in the Making" for Converse, and Ringan Ledwidge's "Airborne" for Jordan Brand, starring Dwyane Wade.

Advertiser of the Year
Volkswagen
No automaker, except perhaps Chrysler, comes close to VW creatively these days. Working with Deutsch, it followed up "The Force" (honored at last year's CLIOs) with a bevy of great TV, interactive, outdoor and print work, including "The Dog Strikes Back," "Black Beetle," and "The Bark Side"—leaving rivals in the dust.